Immersion: The Science of the Extraordinary and the Source of Happiness

by Paul J. Zak

No one raves about boring movies, bland customer service experiences, or sleep-inducing classes. The world is rapidly transforming into an experience economy as people increasingly crave extraordinary experiences.

Experience designers, marketers, entertainment producers, and retailers have long sought to fill this craving. Now, there’s a scientific formula to consistently create extraordinary experiences. The data shows that those who use this formula increase the impact of experiences tenfold.

Creating the extraordinary used to be extraordinarily hard. Immersion offers a framework for transforming nearly any situation from ordinary to extraordinary. Based on twenty years of neuroscience research from his lab and innumerable client applications, Dr. Paul J. Zak explains why brains crave the extraordinary. Clear instructions and examples show readers exactly how to create amazing experiences for customers, prospects, employees, audiences, and learners.

You can guess if your experience will be extraordinary—or you can apply the insights from Immersion to ensure it is.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

274 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 13, 2022

About the author

Dr. Paul J. Zak is Distinguished University Professor at Claremont Graduate University and is in the top 0.3% of most cited scientists. Paul’s two decades of research extending the boundaries of behavioral neuroscience have taken him from the Pentagon to Fortune 50 boardrooms to the rainforest of Papua New Guinea. In 2017 he founded Immersion Neuroscience, a software platform that allows anyone to measure what the brain loves in real-time that is used to improve outcomes in entertainment, education, advertising, and emotional health. He is a regular TED speaker and appears in the media regularly. https://pauljzak.com

Reviews

[Elena Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those who are tired of dopamine society and looking for new ways to stay tuned into (long-term!) extraordinary experiences.

Thanks, Dr. Paul Zak, for your life dedication, passion, and research on oxytocin. Many years passed, and a wave of critique too: "it’s not trust", "it’s not love"… but what is it, and why oxytocin has a big chapter in the new post-growth world.

What a story at the beginning! You never know where ordinary scientists could research, right?😅 Recommend this book from the bottom of my heart❤️

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting at times, but I often felt like the author was trying to sell me on his consulting services or get me to buy the Immersion App. The book focuses on the author's neuroscience research and its implications on getting people to buy things, learn better, make for better organizations, and enhance customer experience. One interesting takeaway is that routinely what people say they "like" isn't necessarily correlated with what they buy or are most influenced by. That's where the author's research comes into play - finding out what chemically is going on in people's brains that leads them to do the things they do and buy the things they buy. Sometimes his studies seem to be very small in number and I wonder if they are actually statistically significant or just anecdotal. All in all, not a bad book, but not one that I ended up being immersed in.

[Ryan Blanchette · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was the basis of a good interview podcast from The Art of Manliness podcast. It is a credit to Brett McKay that he pulled out as much wisdom from Mr. Zak in the cast. The book is a shameless plug for Zak’s consulting work. If you are in marketing, by all means read it and go hire him. But to put on the cover that this is “about the science of the extraordinary and the source of happiness” is the most egregious false advertising I have encountered in a long time.

[Michelle M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bad for audiobook. Feels like a college course book. Great information for certain professions. Didn’t really give me new insight on personal happiness

[Robin Bittick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book to read for application across a variety of organizations.

[Dustin Street · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the science in this book, I was just hoping for more practical advice on how to boost immersion in storytelling. This book really is more of a data report on what all the author has accomplished in his work.